CERN's openlab has published a document explaining stuff it wants someone to invent so it can get the most out of the large hadron collider (LHC) and its other instruments.
The Whitepaper on Future IT Challenges in Scientific Research (PDF) ) sets out the problem, namely that exotic kit was needed to cope with the petabyte-per- …

COMMENTS

Alternatively

They need faster data reduction methods. We are actually working on much faster processing methods to extract the information from the raw data, so the raw data need not all be stored before processing. They do use preprocessing methods for reducing storage now, but existing methods do not scale well, so for ever faster data rates better, lower complexity algorithms are needed.

Not that I would mind kit with the specs they want. I want that too. And not to run Crysis!

Re: Alternatively

Re: Alternatively

True, as a scientist you do not like throwing away anything, but with projects like LOFAR, SKA, and the like there is little other option. One trick in the case of LHC-like is to store the detected tracks in a parametric way rather than storing every point that made up the track. That makes a big difference. Might we miss things? Certainly, can we store all the data for later reuse? Not at the moment.

You really want to be able to do both. Processing faster to get the information from the data and store every bit quickly.

Re: I suspect a transcription error

Violin 6000 series supports max 4GB/s read. Cern currently have 10GB/s peak capacity. They want 20GB/s (write not read). PCI Express 4 can support up to 31GB/s but writing that to long-term storage is another matter. As for your MacBook supporting 4GB/s sustained write - now THAT must be a transcription error

Catchy title -- The Higgs already had too much.

And while we are at Santa's list, me, I want a red Porsche for five quid, so I can get the most out of the M25.

Potential missing staff in some areas is a separate issue, and educational programmes are not designed to make up for it. On-the-job learning and training are not separated but dynamically linked together, benefiting to both parties. In my three years of operation, I have unfortunately witnessed cases where CERN duties and educational training became contradictory and even conflicting.

"How should we make it attractive for them [young people] to spend 5,6,7 years in our field, be satisfied, learn about excitement, but finally be qualified to find other possibilities?" -- H. Schopper

Indeed, even while giving complete satisfaction, they have no forward vision about the possibility of pursuing a career at CERN.

This lack of an element of social responsibility in the contract policy is unacceptable. Rather than serve as a cushion of laziness for supervisors, who often have only a limited and utilitarian view when defining the opening of an IC post, the contract policy must ensure the inclusion of an element of social justice, which is cruelly absent today.

"The cost [...] has been evaluated, taking into account realistic labor prices in different countries. The total cost is X (with a western equivalent value of Y) [where Y>X] source: LHCb calorimeters : Technical Design Report

Sure... be an open book.

In Geneva, the very first meeting of the Coordinating Committee for Intercontinental Research Network (CCIRN) was in May 1988. This committee was the first attempt to harmonize the inter-regional operation of the emerging world-wide research network.

The second meeting took place in October 1988 at a summer resort in Western Virginia, sad and grey this particular autumn. The Americans turned up in force. Bill Bostwick, from the Department of Energy was the Chairman, Barry Leiner from the Department of Defense and Vint Cerf were present. The European representatives were thin on the ground: a German and British representative plus Francois Flückiger.

In 1991, 80% of the internet capacity in Europe for international traffic was installed at CERN, in building 513.

Re: Just come out and say it.

Re: Just come out and say it.

Well it's around 3 years of information at the rate you can put it in. The rate you have there is difficult to estimate. Such long lines without any resistance actually might have very nasty properties. For example if it has a resonant frequency, it'll be undamped making it very narrow band as the only dampening happens at the receiver. That's why loudspeakers are made deliberately dampened.

Of course any realistic chance would be to use fibre and amplify the signal every 100 kilometres or so. However since you insist on going analogue, amplification will always introduce noise. So after perhaps 10 or so amplifications your signal will have disappeared below the noise floor. Analogue fibre systems exist, they are the backbone of cable companies. Even when they claim they are digital, they actually transmit the analogue signal containing their DVB-C muxes over fibres. That's way cheaper than placing DVB-C modulators everywhere.

The most realistic chance you've got are satellites. Those are, and probably will be for the foreseeable future, be analogue devices. Plus geostationary satellites give you a round trip time of a quarter of a second.

Still if you don't insist in using a delay line as storage, you can use analogue hard disks. Those were used in early non-linear video editors as a preview storage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npExd1D6mtI

BTW here's the largest device I've seen using delay line storage. It's an electronic standards converter made by the BBC. It can store a whole field of video!